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ityPakistani panel calls for end to U.S. drone strikes
By Ashish Kumar Sen
-
The Washington Times
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
A Pakistani parliamentary commission has demanded an end to U.S. drone strikes inside the country and an unconditional apology for a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
"No overt or covert operations inside Pakistan shall be tolerated," says a report from the commission, which was set up to draw up new terms of engagement with the U.S.
"It needs to be realized that drone attacks are counterproductive, cause loss of valuable lives and property, radicalize the local population, create support for terrorists and fuel anti-American sentiments," the report says.
Drone strikes in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased under the Obama administration. U.S. officials say these strikes have been effective in eliminating terrorists.
Pakistan's Parliament on Tuesday suspended until Monday a special joint session to debate the future of the relationship with the U.S.
Pakistan shut down a land route used to supply U.S. troops in Afghanistan following NATO strikes on two Pakistani border posts in November. It also kicked U.S. troops out of the Shamsi air base, from which unmanned Predator drone operations had been run.
The U.S. military admitted that it bore some responsibility for the attack in Pakistan's Mohmand area, but said its forces acted in self-defense. Pakistan rebuts that explanation.
The parliamentary commission sought an unconditional apology for the incident and proposed taxes be levied on supplies sent through Pakistan to NATO troops in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials had been pressing Pakistan to reopen the supply line. However, a Western official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of discussions, said NATO troops had not been affected by the closure.
"It's been more than three months since that route was closed, and it hasn't hurt because we still have the northern supply lines," the Western official said, referring to routes from Uzbekistan.
"Pakistan thought that it had this great lever [the supply lines]. Instead, we have found out that we don't need it," the official said.
The U.S.-Pakistan relationship has hit rock bottom following a series of incidents, including the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis in January 2011 for killing two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore, the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a U.S. commando raid in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad in May, and the NATO attack on the border posts.
"The tragedy at Mohmand really served as an end-line trigger that called for a fundamental reset" in the relationship, Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington last month.
© Copyright 2012 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
By Ashish Kumar Sen
-
The Washington Times
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
** FILE ** Smoke rises after a reported NATO airstrike in Pakistan’s tribal area of Mohmand, along the Afghanistan border, on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations Department)
A Pakistani parliamentary commission has demanded an end to U.S. drone strikes inside the country and an unconditional apology for a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
"No overt or covert operations inside Pakistan shall be tolerated," says a report from the commission, which was set up to draw up new terms of engagement with the U.S.
"It needs to be realized that drone attacks are counterproductive, cause loss of valuable lives and property, radicalize the local population, create support for terrorists and fuel anti-American sentiments," the report says.
Drone strikes in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased under the Obama administration. U.S. officials say these strikes have been effective in eliminating terrorists.
Pakistan's Parliament on Tuesday suspended until Monday a special joint session to debate the future of the relationship with the U.S.
Pakistan shut down a land route used to supply U.S. troops in Afghanistan following NATO strikes on two Pakistani border posts in November. It also kicked U.S. troops out of the Shamsi air base, from which unmanned Predator drone operations had been run.
The U.S. military admitted that it bore some responsibility for the attack in Pakistan's Mohmand area, but said its forces acted in self-defense. Pakistan rebuts that explanation.
The parliamentary commission sought an unconditional apology for the incident and proposed taxes be levied on supplies sent through Pakistan to NATO troops in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials had been pressing Pakistan to reopen the supply line. However, a Western official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of discussions, said NATO troops had not been affected by the closure.
"It's been more than three months since that route was closed, and it hasn't hurt because we still have the northern supply lines," the Western official said, referring to routes from Uzbekistan.
"Pakistan thought that it had this great lever [the supply lines]. Instead, we have found out that we don't need it," the official said.
The U.S.-Pakistan relationship has hit rock bottom following a series of incidents, including the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis in January 2011 for killing two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore, the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a U.S. commando raid in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad in May, and the NATO attack on the border posts.
"The tragedy at Mohmand really served as an end-line trigger that called for a fundamental reset" in the relationship, Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington last month.
© Copyright 2012 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.